This is what happens during naptime

... when we don't actually nap. RIP rainbow slinky.

Small victories

Russian is a difficult language to master. The more I learn the more I realize I don't know. I'm pained when I hear an FSO with a 3/3 or 4/4 tell me that they don't feel comfortable with the language or don't know how to say something simple (of course, at FSI there is a very different focus on what vocabulary is taught, but still ... a "high school graduate level speaker" should be able to buy curtains!)

Terry and I were lucky to get into the 8 week language program before heading to Russia, we learned useful basics such as how to ask directions or buy 2 kilos of apples at the market. As importantly, we learned what likely responses would be to such questions. Once hitting the ground we got into the 2h/week language class and practiced reading billboards and signs. All in all, not much instruction. I probably only got to class half the time between the whole newborn-who-doesn't-sleep thing and later the job-gets-in-the-way-of-personal-activities thing.

Then I passed the FSOA. I need those language points now! Upon my return to Russia last summer I became more diligent in class attendance, asked my teacher to give me supplemental homework, and basically kicked it into high gear. Of course, the rest of life still marched on and I still didn't get much more than 1h/day of Russian study.

I've been studying Russian with varying intensity for 3 years now.

Two weeks ago, I made a restaurant reservation without once slipping into English. This week, I reserved tickets to a performance over the phone ("Sleeping Beauty" Ballet on Ice, I hope Alex enjoys it and gets motivated to go back to skating!) also entirely in Russian. This one was more complex as I was asking for specific seats and also needed to figure out where to obtain the physical tickets. I picked up the tickets yesterday and they are exactly the seats I thought I ordered and cost the exact price I thought they should!

If I put as much effort into learning Spanish as I have in learning Russian, I'd be pretty darn fluent by now. But my small victories are sustaining me in my quest for basic literacy.

Our kids like sausage.

We have some sausage fans in our house.  As you can see in the video below.

Chocolate money

Terry and I were out tonight so it was up to my nanny to watch the kids this evening. We give Zoltan chocolate when he uses the potty when he's got underpants on (he prefers to go commando so we're working on encouraging underpants). I forgot to reload the chocolate so our nanny went out and bought some today. It was chocolate coins.

So, the evening passes, he uses the potty, and the nanny gives him and Alex their coins (to avoid the drama we just give her a treat when he gets one). Alex understands immediately what it is and peels the foil off to get to the chocolate. You'd think after the number of times I have read Silverlicious to these children that Zoltan would also figure it out.

Nope. The nanny is distracted talking to Alex right after giving out the coins so she misses that Zoltan has left the room. Until he comes back yelling "pinky bank! pinky bank!"

Yep, the chocolate went into the piggy bank.

European capitals

One of those "only in the Foreign Service" moments: a friend had Game Night and we were playing Outburst! The topic was European Capital Cities. Of course we got all 10 but the funny part was that before the last one we thought of - Athens - we had yelled out Bucharest, Tirana, Pristina, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Lublijana, Budapest, and Valletta. None of those, of course, were on the list.

And of all the capitals to forget about until the end, it was the one most in the news right now. Doh!

The coolest shared-babysitting plan ever

We have new neighbors in our apartment building. They have kids older, younger, and similar ages as our kids. As has already been mentioned, barriers break down quickly in the foreign service - if you only have 2 years to be friends with someone (or less!) you waste less time finding out if you want to be friends.

The wife suggested a babysitting exchange: after the kids go to bed one evening, we go out while one of them comes down and stays with the kids. Another night one of us travels the stairway to do the same. We had our first test this weekend, when Terry and I went out for a belated birthday dinner (I inconveniently had the flu over his birthday weekend, even on the big day itself. I guess it's lucky that he doesn't think it's any big deal. He went to the hockey game that night anyway). We were worried because the night before Zoltan had been up about a million times before our bedtime, so I was ready for that "he won't stop screaming" phone call. Nope, the kids didn't make a peep all night.

This weekend will be our turn to monitor a sleeping house. Keep fingers crossed for us that it works out as well as the first run.

I know in the USA - where babysitters are exorbitantly expensive, at least compared to here - friends may not live bathrobe-and-slippers-commute close, but I do think it is a brilliant way for couples to get a bit of alone time outside the house. At first, Terry said he didn't want to do it too often because we can't necessarily afford to go out all the time. My perspective is different: if we do this regularly, there's no pressure to "do something special because we're paying a nanny for this". We can just take a walk, check out an art gallery, get shwarma and sit in the park.

Now that's something different

In April Terry and I will have been a couple of 12 years. That feels like a long time. And in all that time, one particular phenomenon has been a constant: if we both get sick with something, regardless of who got it first, he ALWAYS gets it worse. This means I'm the one who has to keep life going because I'm healthier.

Another constant of my life had been, until the last 3 years, that I don't get the flu. For about 15 years this held true. One of the last two winters we both had the flu and had to call in a nanny on a Friday, or maybe it was a Saturday. In any case we were equally useless and grateful to have someone who could care for our children because they don't have a 10 hour appetite for TV.

Until this week. Because I don't get the flu, I don't get the flu shot. Everyone else in my family did. Hence, I am the only sick one. It's been so long I didn't even remember what the symptoms were or how long it's supposed to take to feel better - I had to look them up.

Next year I will get the flu shot, promise!

Happy Defenders Day

Today is Defenders Day (the full name is Defender of the Fatherland Day).  This is a Russian Holiday to celebrate the men who served in defense of Russia/Soviet Union.  It is a Soviet hold over holiday.  There is more information here.  This is not to be confused with Defenders Day in Maryland.  So in preparation for the holiday Alex's deski sad class made little tanks to give their fathers.  As you can see from the picture.  Originally it had a piece of candy inside for the father's, but Alex ate the piece and left the wrapper.  This morning she kept telling me that she was giving me trash for my present. I guess it is fitting since I never defended Russia from a foreign invader.

Ice Museum

Back in December I saw a fascinating advert for the "Ice Fairy Tale". Constructed outside of a shopping center in the southern part of Petersburg, it boasted a winter fairyland including bell towers, a maze, snow maidens, and evil sorcerers all built out of over 1000 tons of ice and 300 tons of snow.

I wanted to go over Christmas long weekend. I wanted to go during the 10 days of New Year's holiday. It was going on through March so we kept postponing and postponing. This week is fabulous - two holidays! Monday was an American holiday so Terry and I had a "date day" and Thursday is a Russian holiday - no preschool - so we decided to do a family day. We asked another family with kids our kids' ages if they wanted to come too and we caravan-ed out to the mall.

A few navigational hiccups later, we arrived at the place. It definitely looked a bit disappointing from the outside, which was frustrating as we spent about 20-30 minutes extra in the car (due to said hiccups). But then we went inside. It was amazing. You can see our kids sitting on a throne made of ice. Unfortunately, my husband claims almost none of the other photos came out :( There was a huge heart in ice all studded with flowers on the inside, that was my favorite. There was also a maze of ice blocks, about the height of a 1st grader so the adults could look over the whole thing and keep an eye on their kids but the kids got to wander and get "lost".



The outdoor ice slide was a bit disappointing as it was near freezing today so the melt erased any amount of slickness it originally had.


There was also a 2 tiered slide made from linoleum stapled to a wooden structure. We totally are making this at the cabin! My friend and I each went down this one with one of our kids. We thought our coats were long enough to keep our bottoms dry through the slide and onto the ground. Ooops!

After the outdoor fun, we went in the mall for lunch. The kids got Burger King for the 2nd time in 2 days - lucky them!

Arctic Hysteria

For President's Day, Terry and I had a little "date day" - nanny came for Zoltan, Alex went to preschool (American holidays sure aren't holidays for the Russians!) It was all last minute as I thought until Sunday night I might have to deal with an IWC mini-crisis but it got resolved enough that my Monday freed.

Although there are many items on the Petersburg "bucket list" we hadn't yet checked off, we're also realizing that we don't care that much about some of the Must See sites. I'd also noted an exhibition at the State Russian Center of Photography (www.rosphoto.org/en) that looked interesting, called "Arctic Hysteria". The museum is interesting, it takes up half of two very separate floors (meaning, to continue the exhibition we had to go out the door, down the stairs, and ring the bell for the second part of the museum to let us in, show the tickets we had purchased on the floor above, and then be admitted). The artists were Finnish, and the art was varied. Our favorite piece was this one. Terry is astonished that I like it, I tell him I studiously ignore that the bunnies are stuffed - as in, formerly lived.

We also discovered a new artist to admire, Ilkka Halso.

Then we lunched at Russkii Dachinki on Nevsky. My Greek salad was great, and that's about all we can say about it. The pelmeni were the worst I've ever had and most of my pelmeni experience comes from the frozen food aisle.